Comic-Con readies for the last 'Hobbit' film

Convention vet Brian Truitt joins first-timer Carly Mallenbaum to share what you need to know before Comic-Con kicks off Thursday in San Diego. There will be big stars, big movies and, as always, big surprises at Comic-Con.
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Director Peter Jackson is a conquering king when he marches one of his Middle-earth movies into Comic-Con.

With the final one, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (due out Dec. 17), he's bringing his second epic trilogy to a close with huge clashes and heartwrenching losses for the J.R.R. Tolkien faithful. Jackson will be part of a star-studded Hobbit panel at the convention on Saturday.

"People tend to forget what happens at the end of The Hobbit," says screenwriter/producer Philippa Boyens. "They think of this little children's book. The rest of the story needs to be told, and it's pretty intense stuff."

The previous film, 2013's The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, ended with the dragon Smaug (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch) getting ready to fricassee the hamlet of Lake-town, and the new movie contains the title battle, one that could rival the skirmishes of The Lord of the Rings movies.

"It's very much a 'shock and awe' by the enemy," Boyens says, "and it's pretty devastating" on Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) and his dwarf pals, who are trying to reclaim their gold-filled mountain kingdom of Erebor.

Five Armies also moves more toward the darkness — and events — of the first LOTR movies. The wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and the White Council go to Dol Guldur to banish the evil Necromancer (Cumberbatch again). But, with the all-powerful One Ring in the world, the Necromancer continues to regain his mojo on the way to becoming Jackson's ultimate LOTR baddie Sauron.

"It's all coming full circle," says Boyens, adding that the take-away from all these films is the importance of home.

"It's the ordinary, everyday folk, as Gandalf says in the first film, those are the ones who keep the darkness at bay. That is what you come to understand is more important than gold and that treasure in the mountain."